This week we have three quick updates on work that's been going on at GDS recently. Brij Thakrar talks about how we're training people to write for GOV.UK, Allon Lister introduces the Carer's Allowance public beta and Amy Whitney explains how we're updating tools for businesses on GOV.UK.
Follow Brij, Allon and Amy on Twitter:
Brij @TickThak
Allon @allonlister
Amy @amosie
Transcript
Brij Thakrar (Trainer, Transition team):
Publisher training is going to be for those people who are going to add content to their sites once they’ve moved to GOV.UK. We’ve had some pre-alphas, and those, amongst our staff and amongst some agency members, have gone down really well. We’re going to be moving that forward, we’re going to be teaching people just how to write content for GOV.UK to make sure it fits the transition, and also Publisher, how to use the tool, because we want people to be able to add content properly.
Allon Lister (DWP Transformation):
We started working with Carer's Allowance in September last year. We had a brief discovery, and then we went into building an alpha. The alpha wasn’t just to create a great new service; it was to demonstrate to DWP that agile delivery can work. The new service went live last week. It’s already taken a thousand claims, and we’ve had really, really good feedback, not just from the users of the service but from the carers’ support groups.
Amy Whitney (Designer):
This week we have deployed the new Finance and support for your business tool. Users are able to filter down by loans, grants, recognitions boards and also their location, so they're able to find schemes that are both national and local. It then tells them what they then need to do to apply for it and if there's any eligibility criteria.
3 comments
Comment by mikewill posted on
Brij - Good luck with the training!
I hope you advise them to use:
- sentences shorter than 46 words
- "moving forward" only if physical movement is involved
- jargon like “pre-alpha” only if they want to sound arcane
- “will” – simpler, clearer and faster than “is/are going to”
Comment by INGRID posted on
Are you planning on rolling out training to Worldwide users? If not, is there any new training material that you could send out?
Comment by alicenewton posted on
Hi Ingrid,
FCO provide training to Worldwide editors, rather than GDS. But we are in the process of updating the manual for publishers (http://alphagov.github.io/inside-government-admin-guide/), which should answer a lot of questions.
Thanks,
Alice